Tuesday, 4 November 2025
The Austrian Sustainable Building Council (ÖGNI) has introduced a new basic certificate for sustainable construction sites in building and civil engineering. PORR has become the first construction company in Austria to obtain this certification, which establishes a uniform standard for evaluating environmental and organisational practices across all of a company’s construction sites.
Until now, construction sites could only be certified on an individual project basis. The new system allows companies to receive an overarching basic certificate confirming compliance with key sustainability requirements in daily site operations.
The certification covers criteria such as site organisation, environmental risk assessment, noise and dust management, and the monitoring of energy and water consumption. Once the basic certificate has been issued, future projects by the company will only need to demonstrate compliance with project-specific or non-standardised elements, such as particular machinery or site communication procedures. The change is expected to simplify documentation and make the certification process more consistent and efficient.
The sustainable construction site standard was originally developed by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and is now applied in Austria through ÖGNI. The assessment includes environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Certification is completed in two phases: a preliminary certificate during construction and final approval after project completion.
To achieve the new basic certificate, PORR conducted a review and optimisation of all relevant processes using selected pilot sites. The company’s experience contributed to refining the framework used by ÖGNI for evaluating sustainability across active construction environments.
According to ÖGNI, the introduction of a basic certification system provides the Austrian construction industry with a more practical way to embed sustainability principles into everyday operations and to monitor their consistent application across multiple projects.
